Document Actions

Smackout wolf pack is 5th for Washington - Teanaway female is a Lookout pup, grown up

Jul 22, 2011

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) today confirmed the Smackout Pack, another new wolf pack in Washington, this time in northeast Stevens County. They also announced that the adult female of the new Teanaway Pack is likely a descendant of the Lookout Pack, farther north in the Cascades.

Did a lonely Lookout wolf pup make her way south to the Teanaway? Lookout pup photo, 2009: Conservation NW remote camera

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) today confirmed the Smackout Pack, another new wolf pack in Washington, this time in northeast Stevens County. Earlier this month, wildlife biologists documented a wolf pup from the pack and are trying to radio-collar of the breeding adults for monitoring.

It's been a big year for Washington's wolves. Earlier this month, news came of a new pack in the Teanaway. According to the DFW, DNA analysis of the adult female wolf suggests that she is likely a recent descendant of the Lookout Pack farther north in the Cascades, and so a survivor of the brutal poaching that struck that pack in 2009.

The Lookout Pack was Washington's first documented resident gray wolf pack since the 1930s, its presence captured first on remote camera placed by volunteers with Conservation Northwest's citizen wildlife monitoring project.

“Wolves are re-establishing here on their own,” said Nate Pamplin, head of WDFW’s Wildlife Program. “The confirmation of additional breeding wolf packs moves us closer to achieving a sustainable population, and also highlights the need to finalize a state wolf plan that sets recovery targets and management tools to address livestock and ungulate conflicts.”